Coolbaugh Township may have to decide sooner rather than later whether it will stick with the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department.

John Kerrick, chairman of the department's police commission, told the Coolbaugh Township Board of Supervisors on Tuesday he expects to hear an answer from the township on Feb. 12 concerning whether it intends to stay with the department or leave it.

That's the scheduled date for the next police commission meeting.

Kerrick said he expects the same from Mount Pocono borough. Both municipalities sent the commission "intent to withdraw" from the department letters in December.

Coolbaugh supervisors have said it is not their immediate intention to leave the department at the end of the year, but instead to explore every option for its police protection.

Coolbaugh is the largest of the four municipalities in the department, and at $2.1 million a year, is responsible for about 42 percent of the department's budget.

According to the department's charter, the municipalities have until the end of the year to decide. However, Kerrick said there is too much to prepare for concerning the future of the department to wait until the end of the year.

The commission is facing contract negotiations with the department's union and would need the next 11 months to prepare for a department that could lose half of its four municipalities.

"It's time to pony up," Kerrick said. "We're going to try to hold them to that (date). We know there are issues, and we want to work through them and get everyone on board. But we need to know the future of the department."

Kerrick, also the chairman of the Tobyhanna Township Board of Supervisors, said his township and Tunkhannock Township, the other two municipalities covered by the department, are committed to staying on, with or without the two other municipalities.

If they were forced to go it alone, or even if one municipality were to leave, Kerrick said, it would take the rest of the year, at least, to shape what would be left of the department.

"We'll have to move on," he said. "There is a lot to plan and take care of. But our first choice is to have everyone together in the department."

Both Kerrick and Chief Harry Lewis said the department would be keeping "all options open" if any municipalities were to leave, including recruiting another nearby municipality to join the force.

"I believe in what we have and the service (the department) provides, and I'm going to defend it," Kerrick said.